India skipper Virat Kohli and coach Ravi Shastri are naturally unhappy with the sudden downturn in the fortunes of their team in South Africa after an extended honeymoon back home, where they looked invincible for over a year.
What has hurt them more than the defeat in the first two Tests is the criticism back home of the selection of the playing XI and players failing to rise to the occasion when all that they needed to do was apply themselves admittedly to a difficult task. It has made the numbing effect more grievous.
What has disappointed fans is that a team that had promised so much before they left crumbled so quickly. They had bowlers capable of taking 20 wickets and batsmen who looked match-winners in different circumstances. If anything is missing, it is MS Dhoni’s calming influence on the captain! Harping on the selection of one batsman and one bowler, the critics are looking at simple explanations for the downfall. Frankly, there is all-round failure, even the bowlers who, for all their splendid spells upfront, let the batsmen off the hook in one session and that proved decisive.
It is easy to say a team has to win two sessions for five days to stay on top. All said and done, they could not score a shade over 200 at Newlands and less than 300 at Centurion. Arguing whether India should have played an extra batsman in such difficult batting conditions is always a tricky question. India have gone in with six batsmen in Tests overseas and it worked, too. Here the specialist extra batsman would only have come in place of Hardik Pandya, who straightaway justified the labelling of an all-rounder India is looking for, by nearly scoring a century, chipping in with crucial wickets and bowling a dozen-odd overs in an innings to keep frontline pacers fresh for a new spell.
The two Tests proved that taking 20 wickets is not enough to win a Test match. Batsmen will have to provide sustenance for the bowlers and also at times dig in to save a match when not in a position force a victory. The 20-wicket theory was brought in when India had Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman in the top-order with captains Sourav Ganguly and Dhoni as back-up and the bowlers could not regularly bowl out the opposition twice in a match. Yet, they did win matches in Australia and South Africa and a series in England.
Selection criticism came mostly in social media, not from ex-cricketers, some of whom wanted a change in the batting order and some others predictably rooted for batsmen who temperamentally look good. Shastri is right, any team you play, the critics will be after the team if a Test is lost.
Critics want both Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma in the side for the third Test, starting Wednesday, and also Shikhar Dhawan back as opener and Lokesh Rahul coming down, forgetting that only XI can play. All of them are batsmen of merit and that’s why they are in the squad.
Come to think of it, Rohit looked settled for a big innings in three of the four innings he batted, his technical deficiencies notwithstanding. Every batsman has struggled on pitches where South African bowlers have made them hop or follow seaming deliveries without getting into position.
After the loss of only two Tests, a debate is triggered whether India needs Kohli the captain or the batsman. After Australia’s visit, there were whispers that he is temperamentally unsuited for leadership. His aggro worked in Indian conditions, but it is seen as needless bravado overseas.
Will he go Tendulkar’s way, wanting to be relieved of captaincy to concentrate on batting? The answer will come by the end of the year after he leads his team in two tough tours of England and Australia. By then he would have realised that a captain has to be much more than an individual who excels in his primary job of scoring runs and leading the team out on to the field.
The day he starts acting as a friend, philosopher and guide to his teammates, and a parent to the young ones, he will motivate them to do anything for him and he will enjoy captaining them. (Veturi Srivatsa is a senior journalist and the views expressed are personal. He can be reached at sveturi@gmail.com)